Three loud clangs rang out through the cave. Marcus watched as Katrina continued to bang her rifle against the circular door emblazoned with the numbers 101.

"Let us in, God-damn-it! We have no food or clean, water!" She punctuated her last two words with mighty swings that caused vibrations throughout the ground and her body. Katrina paused, then let out a mighty yell as she fired 3 shots into the ceiling, causing Marcus to flinch. He walked over to her and placed a hand on her shoulder as she huffed with anger.

"Look, Katrina," he began soothingly, "They're not going to let us in. There probably isn't even anyone left in there. Even if there are, we could be a couple of frickin' super mutants for all they know. Let's just head home." He turned and began walking slowly towards the exit. He paused as he heard her sit down. He turned around. "Katrina-"

"No. Don't even start." She cut him off. "I know there are people in there. That was the entire purpose of these 'vaults'. To keep people alive. And they are in there, and they won't let us in! But they must have food, water, clothes, and weapons, they have to! So why the hell won't they let us in?" She continued to sit there, her back to Marcus, staring at the bright yellow numbers.

Marcus sighed, remembering how stubborn she was. For the seven years they had known each other, she always had had to have her way. If she didn't get it, she didn't cry or have a fit, but there was always hostility in her voice, no matter who she talked to. "Look Katrina, I know you want only what's best for you, and me, but you have to understand, there's no way you're going to get it. We just have to make the best of what we already have, and strive to get more. But the fact of the matter is, those people aren't going to give it to us. C'mon, let's go home."

Katrina grimaced, realizing he was right, no matter how much she didn't like it. She stood up, brushed off her clothes, and turned to face him. "You're right. I just hate the fact that even though the world is nothing but brown soil, crumbling buildings, and poison water, there still is injustice. Let's go." They began walking toward the door. Marcus placed his arm around Katrina's neck and pulled her close to him. She sighed, and laid her head against his shoulder.

Marcus pushed the crumbling door with his free hand. As they emerged into the sunlight, a beeping noise came from Marcus' Pip-boy 2500, which he had scavenged from an empty Vault a few years earlier. Taking his arm off of Katrina, he pressed the unlit button on the right, and scrolled the knob to find the source of the beep. He found it. A message popped up on the screen. "Galaxy News Radio signal found" was blinking in blue lettering on the screen. He tapped it, and immediately, a half-finished announcement from Three-Dog began pouring from the speaker. "?unarmed super mutant was found near the river earlier today," Three-Dog's deep, smooth, melodious voice emanated from the device. "Surprisingly, it was carrying nothing but an old business suit. Just goes to show that even mutants know how to make an impression. And now, we have a hit from before the war that was popular in many coastal areas."

A classic rendition of Somewhere, Beyond the Sea started playing. They walked along a little while farther, until Megaton was in their sight. Marcus had no time to react as he heard a crunch behind him and was immediately thrown to the ground. He heard Katrina let out a surprised yell as he was yanked away from her. She stumbled backwards and caught herself on a dead tree, it's bark scraping her unprotected forearm.. She looked ahead to see a single Super mutant lumbering towards Marcus, it's teeth bared in a fierce scowl. She pulled out her rifle, but was unable to steady it as pain flashed through her right arm. She realized that the bark must have done much more than a mere scratch. She felt her sleeve, and, sure enough, blood was trickling down her arm. The pain increased, but subsided quickly before consuming her again.

Marcus' vision was blurry. A sharp pain in his back registered in his mind that he must have fallen on a rock, and a rather pointy one at that. He attempted to roll over onto his stomach, but his legs would not obey him. He pulled his .32 caliber revolver out of it's holster and attempted to aim at the mutant that was lumbering toward him. He unloaded an entire cylinder into it's chest, but this only had a minor effect on it. He couldn't reload, and was forced to lay there helplessly as the mutant picked him up and tossed him several feet away. He luckily avoided any obstacles that would have caused him damage, but his left leg twisted behind him as he ungracefully landed. A scream tore from his throat, but was choked as he coughed up blood. His breathing heavy, he rolled his head to the side and caught a glimpse of Katrina standing behind the mutant before he blacked out.

You have a wonderful tone, Vanir. I really do like your writing style. Nice, smooth flow. That said, I enjoyed this chapter. It seemed a little too short, but I guess I say that to everyone. One thing though, why was Marcus coughing up blood? Were one of his internal organs damaged or something?

Good stuff so far.

Foggy voices randomly appeared and disappeared in Marcus's head. He could barely make sense of them, only a worried woman's voice and another male voice, saying something about a large cost. It pained him to stay in this state, and was all too willing to slip back into sweet unconsciousness,

It was several more hours before he awoke, his head pounding and a subtle ring in his ears. His vision was bright and blurry; he could just make out a lamp shining over his head. After a few more seconds of pain, the effect began to fade, and he could make out a man and a woman to his side. Both looked familiar, and yet, there was something different that caused him to not be able to make out who they were.

"D-doc? Doc Church?" He sputtered, slurring his words as a light pain in his mouth told him that his tongue was swollen.

"Well, at least he ain't dumb." The Doc said. "Mighty fine scare you gave us, getting all beat up by a super mutant. Wasn't sure you would recover."

Katrina punched Church in the shoulder. "Don't even say that! I was the worried one. It was like you didn't even care at all, as long as you got your money." She bent down near him and he struggled to move his head to the side. "How you feeling? You're really torn up, your right leg is broken, tongue swollen, broken ribs, and a punctured lung." Marcus started at the mention of his lung. Katrina noticed and sighed, with a small smile on her face. "Oh, it's fine, it wasn't serious, but I'm afraid you'll have to stay in bed for a while."

Marcus put a hand to his forehead, squinted his eyes, and tried to battle the pains that shot through his body. Katrina's descriptions made the ordeal seem a hell of a lot more bearable than it was. Every bone on his right side felt like it was burning, and he found he couldn't take deep breaths without severe pain.

"What exactly happened?" He asked in a weak voice, all that he could muster at this point.

"Well," Katrina replied, "we left the vault and were headed toward Megaton. You remember that one rock that has a huge crack in it that you hid a couple weapons in once? Well, we were just past there when we were attacked by a super mutant." She paused. "I never heard it coming, and I'm betting that you didn't either seeing as you didn't react until you were lying on the ground. It beat you up pretty badly, and threw you like 15 feet and you landed on a rock."

Marcus looked at her with a condemning scowl. She quickly noticed and sputtered out,

"I-I-I-I'm sorry, I?I couldn't have helped you if I wanted, my arm was torn up so bad." He just then noticed the dirty cloth bandage spiraling up her arm.

"Well, gee, that just puts my sufferings in perspective, huh? Imagine getting a cut on your arm, while I have a freakin' punctured lung!" Marcus said in a sarcastic tone. A tear sprung into Katrina's eyes, and she backed away several feet. Marcus' expression softened, and he allowed a piteous smile to slip onto his face.

"Look, I'm sorry, I'm just in a? lot of pain?rightnow." He said through clenched teeth as a flash of pain tore through his torso. "Here, why don't you go and get me some purified water and a Brahmin steak from the house, please?"

Katrina nodded and backed out the door, closing it gently as she left.

Comments welcome.

Like I said at TESFU, you have an excellent tone for storytelling. It's a shame you don't get the feedback you deserve. Of course, that's not unusual for this forum.

i enjoy it

Wow, impressive stuff. Please, keep it coming.

Marcus jumped as he was awoken by a loud, yet muffled shatter. He sat up quickly, not completely alert, and paused for a minute as he noticed he was no longer wrapped in bandages and in pain. Completely oblivious to the fact that he had just been rudely awakened, he looked across his body, which was dressed only in a pair of dirty sweat pants and sandals. He felt across the back of his shoulder, feeling for the spot where he remembered feeling a very sharp pain, a piercing, burning pain that set his senses on fire. But nothing. It was as if his ordeal 5 days ago had never even happened. So he thought until he reached a knotty, tough piece of skin, stretching across his shoulder, to curve up under his arm pit, stopping just before his chest.

He fell back onto his cot as a sudden need for food and drink overtook him. He shuddered as he realized he hadn't eaten for a long time, longer than he thought it could have been. He pulled himself up so that he was sitting on the edge of his bed. With a strain, he pulled himself onto his feet, barely able to walk with weakness clawing at his insides. It took quite a bit of strength just to make it down the stairs into the kitchen, where he saw Katrina bent over on the ground, cleaning up shards of broken porcelain. He smiled, realizing that this had been what caused his unexpected awakening. He dropped into a chair, unable to take the pain any longer.

"Ohmygod!" Katrina yelled as she sprung to her feet and whipped around. Seeing Marcus, she quickly walked over to him and rested her hand on his shoulder.

"You need to give me more warning when you're going to wake up from terrible wounds and surprise me." She breathed, her heart still slowing down its frightened pulses.

"Ugh," Marcus grunted, "I hope you won't have to worry about it anytime soon. Can I have something to eat?" Katrina looked puzzled for a moment, but quickly realized his motive.

"Of course! You must be really hungry after that!" She walked over to the counter and pulled out some canned beans and some dried mashed potatoes. She put the potatoes in a bowl with some water, and mixed it up. She placed these in front of him and went e back to the beans, which she removed from the can by stabbing the top with a knife and peeling back the lid. She poured these on a plate, and handed it to him.

"Sorry, 'bout the potatoes. If I had known you would be waking up, I would have heated up some water." She said sitting down with a apologetic smile. Marcus tore into the food, just grateful to be able to put something in his stomach.

"Doesn't matter to me. You could have put dirt on a plate and mixed in some spices and I would have eaten it. How long was I asleep?" He said through bites.

Katrina closed her eyes and rested her head on her hand, thinking.

"Oh, about two weeks, maybe a couple days less. Doc Church gave you something, said your injuries would heal faster if you slept, which was true from the looks of it." She replied.

Marcus nodded feebly. "I see. It seemed like t was much shorter than that, but, me being unconscious, I guess I wouldn't know." He said with a hint of humor. He was never good at telling jokes, he had such a gruff voice. Nevertheless, that didn't always stop him from making the attempt.

Katrina rolled her eyes. "You are so bad at jokes, you know that? You always sound like you're a bit ticked at something," she teased, "Probably comes from hanging around raiders most of your life, huh?"

Without missing a beat, Marcus replied, "And you always sound like your're sad. Probably comes from living in a hole most of your life, huh?"

Katrina looked angry at this. "Shut up. You know perfectly well we never would have met if it weren't for me living in that vault, right?"

Marcus laughed. "You know I'm just kidding, right? And you said I can't tell jokes."

Katrina ignored this. "Whatever. A couple days ago, one of the "farmers" was found dead in their house. What a waste of a .44 round."

"Yeah, all the injustice of the world, right?"

Man, I have to say that this is great! You should consider a part-time job as a writer. (Unless you already have.) Best of Luck. Vercun out!

LOVE it.

beautiful writing my friend!

Good story, but quite a few typos in your last post. Fix that pl0x

Good prose and a believable central character relationship.

Keep this up.

This is all too good and awesome for me to put a review into words, but...

Keep it up!

Very very nice! I never actually read these but the first two sentances already made me wanna read more! Good job

UBER GOOD! woot! I like it, write some more!

Excellant job with this, Vanir. I don't normally comment on fanfics, but I figured I would with this.

I would offer criticism, but I can't find any problems with your writing aside from the rare misspelling. I actually have more misspellings in my writing though, so I suppose I have no room to talk. Excellant story, and I'm looking forward to the next installment.

Marcus walked out of his house, the rusty door creaking shut behind him. He walked just a few feet before he heard the door reopen and someone step out. Turning around, he found Katrina standing in front of the door, a small metal box clutched in her hands.

"Yes?" He asked simply.

"You forgot the caps," Katrina replied, her voice annoyed, "pretty hard to get food if you don't have anything to buy it with."

"You might be right about that." He reached out and grabbed the box, soft metallic clinks emanating from it. Marcus nodded and began his journey once more. His boots slapped against the gritty metal of the walkway, causing a large bird lurking in the shadows to let out a screech and fly off, its feathers rustling in the light wind.

When Marcus reached the actual ground, near the bomb, he saw Sheriff Simms walking towards the bar.

"Hey, Lucas!" Marcus shouted, and ran towards him.

"Ah, nice to see you out and about again." He said in his cool, calm voice.

"Yeah, nice to be out. The aches are finally gone." Marcus looked to the left as the Brahmin owned by one of the townspeople gave a loud grunt and reared up on his hind legs, just to topple over on its side and lay there, kicking around and grunting even louder, Marcus shook his head and turned back to Simms. "So, any news? Anything unusual?"

The sheriff sighed, leaned his head to the right, and replied, his voice sorrowful and depressed,
"Well, not much, just a couple more killings. There might be little I can do about it, save from actually finding and getting rid of the guy, but it really makes me feel, kinda' guilty."

Marcus' face sobered. "I know what you mean. Whenever I see someone get killed, I get really bothered. That's the main reason I stopped being a raider and settled here."

Lucas straightened his face. "I wish the same could be said about Jericho. I think he just quit because he got old, and couldn't do it well anymore. I'm glad he left with that Vault stray."

Marcus nodded. "You bet. Well, I better head up to Moira's. I gotta get some food. Katrina and I are running low. See ya." Marcus turned to walk away, but the sheriff grabbed his shoulder and turned him around. He then proceeded to grasp his hand and shake it. When their hands parted,
Marcus felt a few caps in his.

"Wha-"

"Get yourself some extra ammunition. I know you can handle yourself, but I always get worried when I see that friend of yours. I'd hate to see something happen to her."

"Uh, thanks. But I assure you she can handle herself well." Marcus replied.

"I'm sure. But I'd rather be safe."

"Sure." Marcus turned again and walked toward the ramp that led to Moira's.

When he reached the shop, he was thrown back from the door as it slammed into him. He landed on his shoulder hard. Dazed, he looked at the opening as a shadowy figure stormed out and ran down the ramp. He pulled himself up and walked into the store.

"Well, hey there!" Moira's childish voice greeted him. "I see you've gotten better. I was worried when I saw them dragging you into Doc's place. You didn't look to good!" she exclaimed.

"You mean you didn't know I was better? I've been fine for a couple weeks."

Moira's face drooped. "No, I didn't know. But the only way I would know is from seeing you. Which I haven't. I've only seen Katrina. Probably because no one talks to me." Her face cheered up. "'Cept for you, of course! Now what can I get you?"

"Uh, just give me whatever food you've got that I can buy with 50 caps. And a box of .32 ammo." He said.

"Sure thing!" As she was gathering up his order, he noticed that her mercenary wasn't standing guard.

"Hey, Moira, where's your guard?" He asked, his voice incredulous.

She looked up. "Oh , him? He left. Just before you came in. I'm not quite sure what it was about, though. I was just sweeping the floor and muttering about how I've suddenly gotten a bunch of orders for .5mm ammo, which I can't do, because I'm all out. Oh yeah, and because I don't take orders."

"I see." He replied. "You hear about the murders?" Marcus asked.

"Murders? What murders?"









Thanks for all the comments! And my wants are now officially halfway complete.

I wish you could make these more often than once a month.

Why did I not see this before? That's a shame, for it is Excellent.
Keep writing, please!

Nice.

More excellance from you, Vanir. The biggest mistake I could find was a missing apostraphe.

As someone stated before me, it would be nice if you could update more often, though it's understandable that you can't. Just so long as you do continue updating. No giving up in the middle and leaving everyone hanging! Then again, this is coming from me and my story that hasn't been updated in a while.

Yeah, I would update it more, but, being 14, I have a lot of other things to worry about. And at any rate, I'm planning on this being the first one I actually finish.

:goodjob:

Great story and writing, looking forward to more